NASA has announced it is handing control of a spacecraft to amateur astronomers, in the latest advance for private space missions.
The International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISSE-3) was launched into a solar orbit on Aug. 12, 1978, on a mission to explore the sun. NASA and the European Space Agency used instruments onboard the craft to study how the solar wind interacts with the magnetosphere surrounding the Earth. Two other spacecraft that participated in that mission re-entered the atmosphere of the Earth and were destroyed in 1987.
Mission planners assigned ISEE-3 a new mission to study comets, and re-named the vehicle the International Cometary Explorer (ICE).
"As planned, the spacecraft traversed the plasma tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner on 11 September 1985, and made in situ measurements of particles, fields, and waves. Termination of operations was authorized 5 May 1997," NASA managers wrote on the mission home page.
The ICE spacecraft will be making a close approach to Earth this summer, and the space agency believes it can re-establish communications with the vehicle. The main problem with extending the mission is funding. Therefore, NASA has decided to "hand over the keys" to the spacecraft to a group of amateur astronomers.
The ISEE-3 Reboot Project has been given the go-ahead to take command of the derelict spacecraft this summer.
"Our plan is simple: we intend to contact the ISEE-3 (International Sun-Earth Explorer) spacecraft, command it to fire its engines and enter an orbit near Earth, and then resume its original mission... If we are successful, it may also still be able to chase yet another comet," the group wrote on the program Web page.
The group is working with NASA to help obtain and develop the tools and procedures necessary to establish communication and control abilities over the vehicle. A sizable radio telescope at Morehead State University in Kentucky has already been secured for use on the mission.
Communications between the private group and the spacecraft will be separated not only by distance, but by time. Original ground hardware and commands given to the 36-year-old vehicle are long gone. Managers in the group are attempting to develop a software emulator that will allow them to transfer information to and from the vehicle.
Mission managers will need to re-establish communications with the craft by this June, or it will be too late to steer the vehicle into the desired orbit. After the mission is extended, the spacecraft will buzz over the surface of the moon at an altitude of around 30 miles.
The ISEE-3 Reboot Project is seeking crowdsourcing for funding the extended mission.
